Spools are used in various machines for supplying and rewinding material. For example, in a printer, such as a thermal printer, a printing media supply spool includes a roll of printing material that is unwound to feed the printing media past a print head. The print head transfers ink from an ink ribbon onto the printing media. Printing media, such as labels, can include a releasable liner that is peeled away from the printed labels upon ejection of the label from the printer. The liner can then be wound onto a liner rewind spool and collected for removal and disposal. Likewise, the ink ribbon that supplies ink for transferring onto the printing media is supplied by an ink ribbon supply spool that carries a roll of ink ribbon. The ink ribbon unwinds from the ink ribbon supply spool as it is fed past the print head. The used ink ribbon is wound onto a rewind spool for collection and subsequent disposal.
Many spools require a core mounted on a rotatable spool body for collecting the liner or ribbon. The core simplifies removal of the material wound thereon by allowing the material to be removed as a unit. Unfortunately, the core is a disposable part that must be provided when printing, and thus increases the cost of printing. In addition, loading the core on the spool body and securing a leading edge of the liner or ribbon to the core, such as by taping, increases the number of steps, and thus the complexity, necessary to set up a printer. Improper set up of the printer can delay the printing process or even ruin the initial run of printed material.
Coreless spools that eliminate the need for a core have been introduced that wind material directly onto the spool body to eliminate these problems. However, removal of material wound directly onto the spool body is difficult. For example, if the material is wound too tight onto the spool body, a user may have to unwind the material from the coreless spool which is time consuming. Even if the material can be slipped axially off of the spool body, it is very difficult to move the entire roll of wound material as a unit without peeling layers of the roll and creating a mess. Moreover, the leading edge of the material being wound onto the spool must be secured relative to the spool whether it is to a core or the spool body. Therefore, a need exists for a spool that provides a simple method for removing material wound onto a spool without winding the material on a removable core.